Children of Falklands conflict to link up

A FALKLANDS veteran has launched a scheme to allow children of servicemen who fought on opposite sides of the conflict to make contact with each other.

Entrepreneur Tony Banks hopes the project will encourage the children of British and Argentine veterans to share experiences and build friendships.

The “Previously Unheard/Hasta Ahora Desconocido” initiative will pair up young people on either side of the Atlantic and enable them to engage in a live video chat.

Mr Banks, who featured in the television show The Secret Millionaire, was inspired to set up the project by his own experience after the 1982 war as he came to terms with what had happened.

The former paratrooper said: “When we arrived in the Falklands, we had never spoken to an Argentine before, and the kids that the Argentine junta sent to fight had never seen or met a Brit prior to their reaching the islands.

“Technology changes this, and it made sense to me to try to start dialogue and discussion between those young people who are most affected by the legacy of the 1982 conflict – the children of veterans.

“These conversations are not meant to be political or turn into a debate on whether the Falklands should be British, but rather an attempt to bypass the politicians and show that we have more in common and are better friends than enemies,” he added.

Mr Banks, 50, himself made contact with an Argentine soldier in 2010 and travelled to South America to return the man’s silver regimental trumpet, which came into his possession during the conflict.

British soldiers had been ordered to strip belongings from Argentine prisoners and the instrument was one of the items confiscated.

Mr Banks, from Dundee, tracked down Omar Rene Tabaraz, who owned the trumpet, and travelled to Argentina to return it to him, an experience he found life-changing.

He said: “Part of the inspiration for the project was that when I got to Argentina I realised that we were just two middle aged men with families and these families had grown up perhaps not fully realising what their fathers went through.”

Young people who sign up for the project will be paired up with people of a similar age and appointments will be made for them to communicate using the video conferencing facilities available through Google+ Hangout, a live multi-person video chat.

The conversation will be recorded, and – with the participants’ permission – uploaded and shared online.

Michael Hughesman, principal educational psychologist at Ministry of Defence agency Service Children’s Education, said: “Clearly there will always be issues for families when a loved one goes away on deployment; it is a stressful and challenging time.

“However, it can be suggested that the more families can talk openly about their experiences, recognise the challenges they face in common and share positive ways of overcoming them, the better.”

Mr Banks, chairman of Balhousie Care Group, has written a book about his experiences during the war, titled Storming the Falklands, which was published earlier this month.

Anyone who is interested in taking part in the project can register online at www.tony-banks.com.